Summertime Fun: The Plunge Inflatable Water Slide

Summer is definitely in full swing and boy is it a HOT one!   Having been born and raised in South Florida, I am no stranger to the heat but that does not mean that I like it.  No no.  Not even close.  In fact, the year round heat is one of the main reasons the Boss and I decided to move out of  Florida to begin with.

However, the fact is that in the summer time it is hot EVERY where so I’m stuck with the heat and unbearable humidity until September.  Oh well.  At least now that I no longer live in Florida I know the heat WILL eventually come to an end so I just have to suck it up for a couple more months.

Sooo…since the neighborhood we are currently living in does not have a community pool and we definitely need something to cool us off, we went deep and decided to buy one of those mac daddy inflatable water slides.  The cost of the slide would have been as much as the cost of a pool membership for the summer and it’s something we’ll be able to keep and use over and over.

But, before doling out a few hundred dollars, I did my homework.  I extensively researched the various water slides out on the market, and believe me there are a lot.   In fact, there are so many, my head actually started to hurt from reading all of the reviews.

The most common complaint for the inflatable water slides as a whole was the durability factor.  A lot of people said that after one summer of use, the stitching on the slide started to come undone.  Well I’m sorry but if I am going to shell out some good money for a water slide, it better not rip.  Unfortunately, most, if not all reviews I read said they had problems with the stitching.  I guess it’s a hit or miss thing.  This is an issue with all types of inflatables it seems (bounce houses, slides, etc.).

However, my husband and I decided we would try and find a slide with the least complaints and after weeks of investigating them all, we settled on The Plunge made by Banzai.

I opted to purchase the slide at a store instead of buying it online in case for some reason, I needed to return it.  That way, I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of packing it up and shipping it back.  I found The Plunge on sale at Target one week so that is where we bought it from.

After three uses, these are my thoughts on The Plunge water slide.

Set up: Fairly easy.  The slide comes packaged in a tote bag all nicely folded and small.  But please be advised that once you take the slide out of that bag and set it up, once you are ready to put it away, there is absolutely NO WAY you will ever fit it back in that tote bag no matter how small you manage to fold it.  It’s impossible to get it back in the bag so don’t even bother wasting your time.  We bought a decent sized plastic bin to put everything in.  It has wheels on it too so we can roll it out from the garage to the yard which is nice because it’s NOT light!

Once you set the slide up it takes no time at all to inflate.  Maybe two minutes max.  There are stakes included but they are not the strongest so don’t be surprised if they break.  Not a big deal since you can buy new ones at a sporting goods store or anywhere else that sells camping gear.  Ours have not broken yet, but that was one of the complaints people had.  The most important ones are the two stakes toward the back of the slide where the kids climb up.

It does take a long time to get the pool filled up.  It probably takes a good hour to get to a point where the pool is at least half full and it does take a lot of water.   You need to have enough water in the pool for the end part of the slide to float and have enough cushion for bigger kids to not hit the bottom of the pool when the come off the slide.

Take Down: Somewhat of a chore.  The slide deflates easily and quickly so that is not the problem.  What is time consuming is DRYING the slide.   Since there is a pool at the bottom, once the water is drained, there is still some left over in the pool.  Unless you leave it inflated for SEVERAL hours in the SUN, there is no way the pool will be dry when you are done using it.

The best way that I have found to dry the entire slide is drain the pool, hose off all of the dirt and grass that is sure to be left all over the slide, and then keep it inflated for an hour or two.  This gets the slide part dry - not the pool.  Then, when the slide is dry and while still inflated, I go back out with a bunch of large towels and get in the pool and wipe it all down until the pool is dry.    I then deflate the slide and begin to fold it starting at the bottom with the pool.  I fold both sides of the pool over and wipe the bottom of it with a towel as I go.  Each time I roll a section over, I dry the bottom.  It is extremely important that the slide is COMPLETELY dry before you store it.  Otherwise, not only will it smell of stale plastic, but it will also end up getting mold and mildew all over it.  The drying of the slide is what takes so long to get it put away properly.  THIS is the only thing I hate about the take down process.

Plus, the underside of the landing part of the slide hardly ever dries because it is attached to the pool by a mesh panel on each side.  Therefore, there is no way to get it dry and it is also sure to collect tons of grass under the slide that is impossible to get out.  They should have had those panels attached with Velcro instead of sewing them down.   It would make drying and cleaning it much much easier.   I assume there is some safety reason for the design (probably so no one can climb under the slide and get crushed when someone slides down).  However, the mesh holes should have at least been smaller so the grass doesn’t go in and get trapped so easily.

We tried to alleviate this by putting tarps under and around the area where the kids climb out of the pool and walk back to the slide.  However, with the summer sun the tarps can get hot and with the water coming from the pool it can also make it slippery.  Banzai has many different models of water slides and some of them allow you to go back up the slide without the need to exit the water.  Those models would prevent the buildup of grass in the landing area.  The design of The Plunge does not allow for that so be prepared for grass and dirt in the pool.

Durability: In my opinion, this could have been better.   So far we have used this slide three times and already, I am seeing some of the stitching coming undone.  I’m sorry, but for this kind of money, this should NOT happen!   I still have another month left on Target’s 90 day return policy so depending on how bad it gets I may have to take it back.  However, as I stated before, many reviews that I read before I purchased this slide said that they also had issues with the stitching.  You’d think that if people are complaining about it so much, Banzai would find a way to remedy the situation but apparently, they have not done so yet.

Also after only three uses, the plastic tube that the garden hose attaches to has become unglued from the plastic connector.  This tube attaches to the top of the slide and sprays water down to keep the slide wet.  We temporarily wrapped some stretch wrap around it to keep it connected, but it certainly should have lasted more than 2 times.

Fun Factor: There is NO denying that this slide is a MAJOR hit with all of the kids that have come over to play on it.  The pool is a great addition because since the kids have to take turns coming down the slide, the ones who are waiting or who do not like to wait, can hang around in the pool.  The pool is also good for the younger kids to splash around in.  The manufacturer age for The Plunge is 5 and up.  I have a 6 and a 3 year old.  My 3 year old wants NOTHING to do with the slide but he absolutely loves being in the pool and hanging with the “big” kids.  There is a section on each side of the slide where he can play safely and out of the way of the kids coming down on it.

So far, we are generally happy with The Plunge although we think there is room for improvement (outside of the durability concerns) should Banzai decide to upgrade this model.

MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT for this particular slide is the way the pool is attached.  The pool AND the slide are all attached, therefore they are on the same fan blower.  Why is this such a problem you ask?  Because once you fill up the pool (which again will take a good hour if not longer), you CANNOT turn the blower off  and keep the water in the pool.  Let’s say you want to take a break for lunch and want to deflate the slide for a while.  You would think that would not be a problem, however the instant you turn the blower off, the pool starts to deflate and the pressure of the water collapses the side and allows all the water to flow out.

If they could figure out how to keep the water in the pool without the need to keep the blower running (perhaps by having an air plug that you open and close to let air in or out of the pool section) it would be a huge improvement.  Otherwise if you plan for a day of using The Plunge you are going to need to keep it plugged in and running all day long.

Bottom line: If you are thinking about investing in a water slide, The Plunge may a good choice since it is the only one (that I have found) that has a large pool at the bottom allowing several kids to play on it at once.  However, just like the rest of the water slides out there, The Plunge is not without flaws.  Keep in mind that chances are you will not be 100% satisfied with the construction and quality of it and there is probably a very good chance that depending on how frequent you use it and how well you take care of it, it may not make it to another summer.

UPDATE: 7/18/09 - I wanted to update this with the current status of the slide.  The stitching was coming apart at the seam even more and we decided that for the price of this slide it was NOT worth it to take the risk so we returned it.  We were disappointed because it was fun and everyone loved it, but it should last longer than it did.  Again you would like to think that they should be aware of the durability issues with the stitching and have some way to improve it.  While others may have a different experience than we did, we found that seeing the stitching on The Plunge water slide start to come apart so badly after a few uses along with the broken water tube was not something we could live with.